“Supply Chain Lessons Learned from Pandemic: Claudia Freed & Chuck Easley”

Supply Chain Now Episode 371

This episode of Supply Chain Now features Claudia Freed and Chuck Easley. Claudia Freed is a business leader with a strong record of managing challenging situations and creating value for all involved. She became part of EALgreen in 1982 when she was chosen to become the first low-income scholarship recipient to receive the gift of a college education. With the EAL scholarship, Claudia earned a degree in Economics and worked in the financial sector, commodities trading, and credit risk management, moving on to management consulting under a selective program designed to lend private sector expertise to the City of Chicago government. EAL was founded on the principle of "paying it forward" and was engineered as a proof-of-concept on the importance of social and environmental impact in the business world. It's mission is education. EAL exchanges excess inventory for scholarships using supply chain as the solution for reallocating resources between two sectors: businesses and higher education. Twenty-five years ago, Claudia was recruited to return to EAL as Executive Director and in 2016, she was named CEO. This full-circle story has been professionally rewarding as she has served on more than 10 boards of directors, including Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ, traveled the world, and now she is on Supply Chain Now.

Chuck Easley brings more than 25 years of corporate & consulting experience to the table. Currently, he is a program manager and instructor at the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, where his learnings and expertise help enhance, develop, customize and deliver programs and courses for the organization. He also leads his own firm, EPIC Performance Group LLC, focused on strategy execution of supply chain optimization and design, business transformation, operations improvement, and executive coaching. Previously, Chuck has served as the Senior Director of Labor, Engineering and Process Optimization at Walgreens – – where he was focused on improving the pharmacy operation as unprecedented clinical services where installed due to the Affordable Care Act. Prior to that, he held senior roles with Lowe’s Companies and Kurt Salmon Associates (which is now part of Accenture). Easley has spent his career in leading and facilitating major change, process improvement and performance improvement. He holds a wide variety of recognition, credentials and awards for his work in industry and in our communities. Connect with Chuck and the GTSCL team here: https://www.scl.gatech.edu/ and learn more about the LEAP program here: https://www.scl.gatech.edu/LEAP

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This episode was hosted by Greg White and Scott Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: www.supplychainnowradio.com/episode-371.